Update on the Most-Cited Papers in the SCI, 1955-1986. Part 2. Sixty Years of Research, from Insecticides to AIDS

In the first part of this essay, we presented a groupof100 highly cited papers from the Science Citation Irrdex@ (SCP ), 19551986.1 That essay, as we mentioned, expands and updates our previous series on the 1,000 most-cited papers in the SCf, 19611982,2 and an essay on 250 highly cited papers from 1955 to 1964.3 All of these papers are by definition Citation Classicsa. In this essay, we’ll discuss artother group of papers from the SCL—-papersthat, although not included in the previous studies, are among the most highly cited in the SCZ. These papers are listed in the Bibliography at the end of this essay, in alphabetic order by first author. The most-cited paper received approximately 960 citations; the least-cited, around 850. The average number of citations is 892. As we’ve noted previously, ptqxxs from tie life sciences tend to dominate these SLYstudies. The present group of papers is no exception. However, the domination by life sciences is not as pronounced as in some of the earlier studies. There is a larger representation of papers from physics and chemistry, and rdsopapers from mathematics, the social sciences, and engineering and technology.